Is the Apple Tax a thing of the past with Apple Silicon Macs

The 11th Gen Chips and their Impact on Laptop Performance

The new 11th gen chips are significantly more powerful than their predecessors, but they still do not match the power of Apple's M1 chip at this price point. This is particularly noticeable when comparing the performance of these chips to that of the M1 Max, which is now a formidable contender in terms of raw processing power. However, even with the M1 Max, there are limitations to its performance that cannot be overcome by any single laptop device.

One of the key areas where the Apple tax comes into play is in the realm of cooling and battery life. The M1 and M1 Max chips are designed to run cool and quiet, even under heavy loads, thanks to their advanced thermal management systems. This means that laptops equipped with these chips can provide hours of uninterrupted use without overheating or generating excessive noise. In contrast, many Intel-based laptops rely on fans to dissipate heat, which can lead to loud operation and reduced battery life.

The M1 Max is also notable for its ability to deliver exceptional performance in a compact form factor, making it an attractive option for users who require a high-performance laptop that is still portable and easy to carry. This is particularly significant when compared to Intel-based laptops, which often sacrifice portability for the sake of raw processing power.

In terms of value, the M1 Max offers a compelling alternative to many premium Windows 13-inch devices. The Razer Book 13 and XPS 13 are two examples of high-end laptops that offer impressive performance and features, but they come at a significant cost. In contrast, the MacBook Pro 13 with an M1 Max chip is now more powerful and offers better battery life, making it a compelling option for users who require a laptop that can keep up with their demanding workloads.

One area where the Apple tax remains intact is in terms of RAM and storage. Apple is notoriously conservative when it comes to upgrading these parameters, requiring a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for its premium laptops. This can be frustrating for users who require more memory or storage capacity, but it also means that Apple is able to maintain a level of consistency across its product lineup.

The shift in power dynamics between Apple's M1 Max and Intel-based laptops has significant implications for the market as a whole. As more and more devices begin to feature Apple's advanced silicon, we can expect to see improvements in performance, battery life, and overall user experience. This, in turn, will put pressure on other manufacturers to respond with their own high-performance offerings.

The fact that I have found myself recommending the M1 Max to friends and family members who are looking for a new laptop has been a particularly exciting development. In the past, there was always an expectation that users would need to switch platforms in order to get a better value or more powerful device. However, with the M1 Max, it is now possible to find a premium laptop that offers exceptional performance and features without sacrificing portability or ecosystem loyalty.

The rise of Apple's M1 Max chip has also highlighted the importance of understanding the nuances of laptop design and the trade-offs that come with different technologies. As we move forward into an era where device manufacturers are competing more aggressively for market share, it will be essential to have a deep understanding of these dynamics in order to make informed purchasing decisions.

For those who are eager to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in this space, I encourage you to subscribe to my channel and follow me on Twitter @lukemiani. You can also check out my subreddit for the latest news and insights from around the world of technology. With that, I will see you all in the next video.

The Future of Laptop Design: What's Next?

As we move forward into an era where Apple's M1 Max chip is a major player in the market, it will be essential to understand what this means for the future of laptop design. The fact that I have found myself recommending the M1 Max to friends and family members who are looking for a new laptop has been a particularly exciting development.

The rise of Apple's advanced silicon has significant implications for the industry as a whole. As more and more devices begin to feature this technology, we can expect to see improvements in performance, battery life, and overall user experience. This, in turn, will put pressure on other manufacturers to respond with their own high-performance offerings.

One of the key areas where Apple's M1 Max chip excels is in its ability to deliver exceptional performance in a compact form factor. This makes it an attractive option for users who require a high-performance laptop that is still portable and easy to carry.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enm1 max are now an established part of the laptop marketplace and even if you don't own one or even intend to buy one you can't deny that they have made a huge impact intel is sweating in fact their ceo is about to resign not sure if that's 100 related but i think it's at least a little bit more than coincidental and even amd is really getting a run for its money now now apple is undoubtedly a premium brand and there have been many people discussing the merits or costs of the apple tax in the past in fact at times it has been genuinely difficult to recommend buying certain macs they've never really been the most performant for the amount of money that they costed and it really came down to other preferences maybe you use final cut pro in which case you kind of need to have a mac maybe you just prefer mac os over windows maybe you appreciate the long battery life or the many many years of official support and the security of mac os there's many factors that played into it but almost never was someone buying a mac because it offered them the most performance for the money until now the m1 chip and the promise of apple silicon has changed so much in so little time that you have to wonder is the apple tax dead at least on the mac today we're going to discuss there's an old saying that goes jack of all trades master of none this is basically the way that i would describe max at least historically they were always very good overall computers but they were never really the best at any particular thing what max have always been or at least for the past 20 years or so is a good overall package but in the past couple of years that jack of all trades master of none has become somewhat of a detriment for apple because it's become harder and harder to justify based on those broadly good things when there were other competitive laptops that were better in some very key areas i mean take the 16-inch macbook pro for example this is a laptop that i and so many people absolutely love it was a huge upgrade over the 15-inch macbook pros that preceded it but even so if you're looking at twenty seven hundred dollars three thousand dollars for some of the higher end configurations of the 16 inch macbook pro you can find other laptops that are thin light with good battery life good displays similar processors and better graphics for the same or less money but there's a wrinkle with this analogy because you see the real saying actually goes jack of all trades master of none but often times better than master of one and that's a really key distinction especially now see if you put up any computer in the world and say here's a great computer there's always going to be someone who says here's one that's less expensive and is better in this particular way that is a master of one particular thing but that's not strictly relevant because most people aren't buying a computer based on one specific facet and that's what apple's strategy had been they weren't going to sacrifice the overall package in order to excel in one particular area but they weren't really doing well enough overall that it still made sense now though things have changed because if you actually break down and examine the things that we all like from a laptop specifically in this case we're going to talk about the mid-range portable laptops because that's what the m1 max are then it starts to get very interesting you've got portability the quality of the display the battery life the price the performance the graphics and also you know the build quality that's important some people don't care about it some people do when you look at all of those different factors you have to ask yourself is there anything that can beat the macbook air or the macbook pro in all of those or at least enough of those that it would be considered a better computer now in the past there were definitely very fair arguments to be made that apple was lagging on a lot of those things take the 2020 macbook pro it had basically the same processors that everyone else was using but at about a 300 markup over what you could get for a similar display similar battery life and similar ram and storage but now if you look at the m1 macbook pro i i would offer you a challenge if you're a skeptic if you think i'm being a fanboy in this video i would like you to go out and find a similarly portable 13 or 14 inch laptop that is as or more powerful that has 20 hours of battery life and that runs as cool as this macbook pro i'm not even talking about whether or not it has more or less ram and storage or a better display or build quality none of that just find me a single laptop that is as performant as the m1 offers the same battery life and the same thermal efficiency it's not possible i'm sorry but it is not possible to get all of those factors i mean first of all in terms of performance intel is completely toasted anything in this category of power consumption and deficiency from intel it's going to be quad core it's going to be u series even the 11th gen chips do not match the power of the m1 at this price point and at this category of device it's simply not possible amd does have offerings that can get up there with the m1 and even beat it at times for a similarly performing chip but even then whether you're going for intel or amd you're not going to find a single laptop that like the macbook pro is completely silent and runs at essentially room temperature all the time even when under load now let me be clear you can absolutely buy a windows laptop that is both cheaper and more powerful than a macbook pro but that's why the analogy that i brought up earlier with the jack of all trades master of none but oftentimes better than master of one is so important because if it's only better in terms of price and performance then what are you sacrificing if you're trying to get an intel laptop that's more powerful than this it's going to be big it's going to have fans that are going to be loud it's going to run hot and it's not going to have anywhere near 20 hours of battery life that is simply not a product that exists to my knowledge there still isn't a compelling ryzen laptop that is this portable this powerful and runs as cool and has as good battery life as the macbook pro so really just bringing it back to those those fundamental things portability display performance battery life cooling i do not believe there is a better package than the m1 and even if you want to just look at performance look at the razer book 13 look at the xps 13. this is more powerful at the same price as those competitive high-end premium windows 13-inch devices that's not something that's been the case before it was almost a rule of thumb that the xps was less expensive for a better overall spec combination than a macbook pro 13 in the past but that is simply not the case anymore no matter how much you spend on an xps 13 this is more powerful and has better battery life and runs cooler so with all of that in mind i think there is only one area where the apple tax is still intact and it's probably not going to go anywhere and that is ram and storage because apple is infuriatingly stubborn on 8 gigabytes of ram 256 gigabytes of storage and to be fair for a thousand dollars or even 1 300 a lot of the premium windows laptops will also come with eight gigabytes of ram and 256 gigabytes of storage the issue is just that apple charges so much to upgrade those things that it starts to get a little bit irritating however setting aside that specific detail i think the apple tax is gone it's crazy to say but the m1 max are not just good for a mac but they are now starting to even be better value than some pcs that's that's a crazy thing because as much as i've loved max in the past there was really no way of getting around the fact that you could get a pc that was more powerful for less right that was just kind of an established fact and i brought and i talked about that in a number of my videos but the big clue to me that things are really changing is that over the past couple of weeks as i've had friends and family members come to me and say i'm looking to get a new laptop in this price range and this is what i'm looking at what do you think is the best option i've found myself recommending the mac to windows people which i haven't previously done before now clearly there is still the obstacle of switching platforms i mean in the same way that a lot of mac people don't necessarily consider switching to windows even if it is a better value in some regards the same is true in the reverse way even if the mac at thirteen hundred dollars outperforms a windows laptop at thirteen hundred dollars it might not be a trade that you're willing to do if you're used to using windows and you need that ecosystem but the very fact that the macbook pro is now competitive from a performance and value standpoint is very new and very very interesting and that's part of the beauty of the text space we have so many different people with so many different viewpoints talking about preferences and use cases and that shouldn't change i don't want everyone to buy a mac i don't want the mac to be the only option but what excites me about apple silicon is not just how good it is but how good it's going to inspire other people to be as well and if you're looking forward to seeing my coverage of all of this new and exciting stuff make sure to be subscribed to the channel also go ahead and follow me on twitter at lukemiani and check out my subreddit in the description below and with that i will see you all in the next video youm1 max are now an established part of the laptop marketplace and even if you don't own one or even intend to buy one you can't deny that they have made a huge impact intel is sweating in fact their ceo is about to resign not sure if that's 100 related but i think it's at least a little bit more than coincidental and even amd is really getting a run for its money now now apple is undoubtedly a premium brand and there have been many people discussing the merits or costs of the apple tax in the past in fact at times it has been genuinely difficult to recommend buying certain macs they've never really been the most performant for the amount of money that they costed and it really came down to other preferences maybe you use final cut pro in which case you kind of need to have a mac maybe you just prefer mac os over windows maybe you appreciate the long battery life or the many many years of official support and the security of mac os there's many factors that played into it but almost never was someone buying a mac because it offered them the most performance for the money until now the m1 chip and the promise of apple silicon has changed so much in so little time that you have to wonder is the apple tax dead at least on the mac today we're going to discuss there's an old saying that goes jack of all trades master of none this is basically the way that i would describe max at least historically they were always very good overall computers but they were never really the best at any particular thing what max have always been or at least for the past 20 years or so is a good overall package but in the past couple of years that jack of all trades master of none has become somewhat of a detriment for apple because it's become harder and harder to justify based on those broadly good things when there were other competitive laptops that were better in some very key areas i mean take the 16-inch macbook pro for example this is a laptop that i and so many people absolutely love it was a huge upgrade over the 15-inch macbook pros that preceded it but even so if you're looking at twenty seven hundred dollars three thousand dollars for some of the higher end configurations of the 16 inch macbook pro you can find other laptops that are thin light with good battery life good displays similar processors and better graphics for the same or less money but there's a wrinkle with this analogy because you see the real saying actually goes jack of all trades master of none but often times better than master of one and that's a really key distinction especially now see if you put up any computer in the world and say here's a great computer there's always going to be someone who says here's one that's less expensive and is better in this particular way that is a master of one particular thing but that's not strictly relevant because most people aren't buying a computer based on one specific facet and that's what apple's strategy had been they weren't going to sacrifice the overall package in order to excel in one particular area but they weren't really doing well enough overall that it still made sense now though things have changed because if you actually break down and examine the things that we all like from a laptop specifically in this case we're going to talk about the mid-range portable laptops because that's what the m1 max are then it starts to get very interesting you've got portability the quality of the display the battery life the price the performance the graphics and also you know the build quality that's important some people don't care about it some people do when you look at all of those different factors you have to ask yourself is there anything that can beat the macbook air or the macbook pro in all of those or at least enough of those that it would be considered a better computer now in the past there were definitely very fair arguments to be made that apple was lagging on a lot of those things take the 2020 macbook pro it had basically the same processors that everyone else was using but at about a 300 markup over what you could get for a similar display similar battery life and similar ram and storage but now if you look at the m1 macbook pro i i would offer you a challenge if you're a skeptic if you think i'm being a fanboy in this video i would like you to go out and find a similarly portable 13 or 14 inch laptop that is as or more powerful that has 20 hours of battery life and that runs as cool as this macbook pro i'm not even talking about whether or not it has more or less ram and storage or a better display or build quality none of that just find me a single laptop that is as performant as the m1 offers the same battery life and the same thermal efficiency it's not possible i'm sorry but it is not possible to get all of those factors i mean first of all in terms of performance intel is completely toasted anything in this category of power consumption and deficiency from intel it's going to be quad core it's going to be u series even the 11th gen chips do not match the power of the m1 at this price point and at this category of device it's simply not possible amd does have offerings that can get up there with the m1 and even beat it at times for a similarly performing chip but even then whether you're going for intel or amd you're not going to find a single laptop that like the macbook pro is completely silent and runs at essentially room temperature all the time even when under load now let me be clear you can absolutely buy a windows laptop that is both cheaper and more powerful than a macbook pro but that's why the analogy that i brought up earlier with the jack of all trades master of none but oftentimes better than master of one is so important because if it's only better in terms of price and performance then what are you sacrificing if you're trying to get an intel laptop that's more powerful than this it's going to be big it's going to have fans that are going to be loud it's going to run hot and it's not going to have anywhere near 20 hours of battery life that is simply not a product that exists to my knowledge there still isn't a compelling ryzen laptop that is this portable this powerful and runs as cool and has as good battery life as the macbook pro so really just bringing it back to those those fundamental things portability display performance battery life cooling i do not believe there is a better package than the m1 and even if you want to just look at performance look at the razer book 13 look at the xps 13. this is more powerful at the same price as those competitive high-end premium windows 13-inch devices that's not something that's been the case before it was almost a rule of thumb that the xps was less expensive for a better overall spec combination than a macbook pro 13 in the past but that is simply not the case anymore no matter how much you spend on an xps 13 this is more powerful and has better battery life and runs cooler so with all of that in mind i think there is only one area where the apple tax is still intact and it's probably not going to go anywhere and that is ram and storage because apple is infuriatingly stubborn on 8 gigabytes of ram 256 gigabytes of storage and to be fair for a thousand dollars or even 1 300 a lot of the premium windows laptops will also come with eight gigabytes of ram and 256 gigabytes of storage the issue is just that apple charges so much to upgrade those things that it starts to get a little bit irritating however setting aside that specific detail i think the apple tax is gone it's crazy to say but the m1 max are not just good for a mac but they are now starting to even be better value than some pcs that's that's a crazy thing because as much as i've loved max in the past there was really no way of getting around the fact that you could get a pc that was more powerful for less right that was just kind of an established fact and i brought and i talked about that in a number of my videos but the big clue to me that things are really changing is that over the past couple of weeks as i've had friends and family members come to me and say i'm looking to get a new laptop in this price range and this is what i'm looking at what do you think is the best option i've found myself recommending the mac to windows people which i haven't previously done before now clearly there is still the obstacle of switching platforms i mean in the same way that a lot of mac people don't necessarily consider switching to windows even if it is a better value in some regards the same is true in the reverse way even if the mac at thirteen hundred dollars outperforms a windows laptop at thirteen hundred dollars it might not be a trade that you're willing to do if you're used to using windows and you need that ecosystem but the very fact that the macbook pro is now competitive from a performance and value standpoint is very new and very very interesting and that's part of the beauty of the text space we have so many different people with so many different viewpoints talking about preferences and use cases and that shouldn't change i don't want everyone to buy a mac i don't want the mac to be the only option but what excites me about apple silicon is not just how good it is but how good it's going to inspire other people to be as well and if you're looking forward to seeing my coverage of all of this new and exciting stuff make sure to be subscribed to the channel also go ahead and follow me on twitter at lukemiani and check out my subreddit in the description below and with that i will see you all in the next video you\n"

Random Videos